The Plan
by Summersdaughter06
Summary: Draco has returned for his eighth year at Hogwarts. But, unfortunately, everybody hates him! He's plans to become friends with and eventually go out with Hermione Granger, in the hope that this will get people to like him. However, he doesn't know that the upcoming sequence of events created by his plan will cause feelings to develop and hearts to be broken. Dramione. OOC
1. Hated and friendless

Chapter 1 

Draco Malfoy stopped dead, turned and glared at the two young girls that were walking behind him. He was sick of this. He was sick of everybody staring at him whenever he walked past. He was sick of hearing people whisper about "that guy who didn't stay and fight with Harry in the battle of Hogwarts" or "that guy who went over to You-Know-Who's side." And mostly, he was sick of pretending he couldn't hear them. So, when he heard some people whispering about him behind his back yet again, he stopped dead, turned and glared at them. They too stopped and Draco could hear their breathing getting faster and their cheeks turning bright red. He thought that they would run away or just carry on walking, but they didn't, so after about a minute of Draco just glaring at the two girls, he took a long breath and said loudly and firmly "Just because you're 'whispering,' it doesn't mean that I can't hear you. Not only is it rude, but it's also incredibly annoying" Draco found that once he had started, it was hard for him to stop "Look, I am aware that I have made some – ok, a lot – of mistakes, but that was in the past, and I don't need people to constantly remind me of those mistakes. I'm not that person anymore. I've done my time and I've come back to Hogwarts to complete my final year and to start fresh, and it's pretty hard to start fresh when I have people talking about me and my past behind my back. So please, if you have a problem with me, then I would really rather you just say it to my face because frankly I'm sick of people staring and whispering." Draco had got more and more angry as his little rant went on, and found that by the end, he was actually yelling. But, with that, he turned on his heel and swiftly walked away.

His pace quickened and his eyes burned and by the time he reached the slytherin common room, tears were rolling down his cheeks. He was glad that the common room was mostly empty, apart from a young boy Draco didn't know sat by himself reading in one of the arm chairs, and two fifth years Draco knew called Joseph and Rosie muttering to each other in one of the corners. He stormed upstairs trying to avoid all eye contact, drew the curtains around his four-poster and led on his bed. The tears that were now streaming down his face were not tears of sadness, nor of anger, but shame. He was ashamed at himself for everything. For being a coward, for being an asshole and for yelling at those two girls. He hated himself for everything that he had done over the past few years and wanted nothing more than to just start fresh. It was hard enough for him to come back to Hogwarts in the first place, but what with his father in azkaban his mother had been kind of down, so he decided to just do what she asked him, and she thought that going back to Hogwarts with the rest of the kids in his year to finish their work and exams in a 'special eighth year' was what was best for him, so he did. The worst part was probably that he had no friends. He sat alone at meals, he sat on a table by himself in all of his lessons and he didn't have anybody to hang around with anymore. Most people just tried to avoid him. All of his old friends acted like they didn't know him, they were all trying to get chummy with the Gryffindor's, Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's. Draco presumed it was because they didn't want to end up like him; hated and friendless. Draco sat up and wiped away his tears, it had suddenly occurred to him that the reason why the common room was so empty was because it was dinner. He liked to go a bit later anyway because it meant that there were less people staring at him. He heard voices downstairs and decided that people were starting to come back from dinner, so that meant it was time for Draco to leave.

He got up from his bed and looked around his empty room. He now had a room to himself, mainly because a lot of the slytherins hadn't actually come back for their eighth year, but also because nobody wanted to share a room with him. He quickly walked down the stairs and out of the common room, again trying to avoid all eye contact as he went. He wasn't 100% sure where he was going, he wanted to go to dinner but was still scared that there'd be a lot people still there. So, he decided to take a detour to the library. He had been reading a lot lately, there wasn't really much else for him to do as he had been kicked of the quidditch team. He says 'kicked off' but really what happened was he tried out but just 'didn't make the team' Draco knew that was crap, as he was clearly a lot better than anybody else who had tried out, so he figured that none of the other players were prepared to work with him and that's why he 'didn't make the team.' It wasn't really fair, that he was prevented from being able to take part in activities or even discussions in class, but then again, Draco supposed that was his own fault. What he really needed to do was to become all chummy with somebody that people liked, just like the rest of the Slytherins. He had to prove to someone that he really was a different person. But he wasn't sure that just becoming friends with somebody that was liked would work, he had to go out with someone that was liked. 'Yes, that would work' he thought as he turned into the library, took out some book and started to read. That way, he'd be around them all the time and they'd be forced to talk good about him to all their friends, and after a while, their friends would have to like me too. He thought that maybe it would be wrong to go out with somebody to get liked by others, rather than doing it because he actually fancied them. But, then again, it couldn't be any more painful that what he was going through at the moment. This thought developed more and more in his mind, and eventually it became a plan. But, he had one flaw – who would actually want to go out with him? His question was answered as he looked to his left and saw a certain bushy-haired eighth year reading intensely. Hermione Granger. It was perfect, who better to go out with than one of 'the golden three,' who everybody loved? He knew that it wouldn't be easy, she was a very smart girl and he wouldn't be able to fool her easily – it would take a lot of time and planning and persuasion, but he really thought he could it. After all, he always liked a challenge.

**Thanks for reading, hoped you liked it. Please tell me what you thought, it will help me decide whether to continue this story or not. Feel free to write any input - thanks!:)**


	2. Crumble like shortbread

Chapter 2 

'This has to been done cleverly,' Draco thought. 'She's not stupid, she'll know it's fake if I just went up to her and started flirting. No, I need to get her to like me first, and to do that, I need to be nice to her.' Hermione was also perfect because she was quite vulnerable at the moment. She was still upset about the few friends she had lost during the battle and to make things worse for her that Weasley had dumped her. Draco would have to tread lightly, one wrong move and the plan would crumble like shortbread. He has to plant the thought her in head, that Draco might actually have changed, that was the first move. It can't be anything too big, just something nice. He could see out of the corner of his eye that she was standing up, ready to leave. He saw an opportunity and took it, he stood up and walked past her, deliberately bumping into her on his way. This caused for the many books she was holding to spill out of her hands and come crashing to the floor. Draco caught an extremely annoyed look on her face before her said "Oh God, jeez I am so sorry. I guess I wasn't looking where I was going." Hermione looked slightly surprised at his apology, which was just what Draco had wanted. Draco bent down and picked up all her books and gave them all back to her, being careful to brush her hands as much as possible. Every time his hand brushed hers, she flinched, only slightly, but it was noticeable. "I really am sorry Hermione" Draco said as he flashed an apologetic smile at her and walked off.

Hermione's POV

Hermione wasn't sure what had just happened. Was Malfoy just nice to her? Did he really just call her 'Hermione' and not 'mudblood'? Hermione knew that Malfoy had been in a bad mood ever since he had come back to Hogwarts, so for him to suddenly be so nice to her was awfully strange. She supposed he didn't want to be hated even more by being horrible to Hermione, but still, Hermione had never seen him be so nice to, well, anyone. It was a minute before she realised that she was still staring into space open-mouthed. She quickly walked to the door but it seemed that Malfoy had beat her to it. He opened the door and gestured for her to go through it. She knew that she was supposed to hate Malfoy after everything he had done, but manners had never hurt anyone. "Thanks" she said and she threw him an awkward smile.

"Any time" He said. The look on Malfoy's face told her that he wanted to say more, so she waited – You know, to be polite. "I'm really sorry about before" He said again, but this time Hermione suspected that he was talking about more than just the book incident. But, as he said that, Hermione was reminded of all the horrible things he had done over the past few years. He had become a death eater, helped all his buddy death eaters into the school, tried to kill Dumbledore, tried to kill Harry, and then when Harry had saved his life he left the school like a coward to say thank you. Anger suddenly surged through Hermione and she gave him a disgusted look as she said "Whatever" and she left. She could feel Malfoy's eyes on her back as he watched her walk away.

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